people across the debt. crisis are growing. economic to. get it first official recognition in the west. supplying the opposition with weapons.

a very warm welcome to you from all of our moscow. and millions of european workers have united against austerity measures as a strike is currently underway in. portugal greece and italy the message of support in other e.u. states as protests are expected all across the continent hundreds of flights already have been delayed or if not entirely canceled in europe with trains and buses also disrupted. this latest report. we're in the center and you can see behind me the police cars already lining the streets we've got a police helicopter overhead we're already getting figures in that being a number of arrests already made today here in madrid of course is not just spain the striking today is political we call grace we've got it's really old getting

involved in this movement and a number of other countries as well belgium cyprus motor the united kingdom are also going to be having various demonstrations throughout the day old rallying around this one message and that is no new tool sterrett say now we've been covering the story very very closely since the very beginning of the euro crisis and as time has gone are we seeing how the devastating story of the horrifying figures continue to climb in spain here the moment more than twenty five percent unemployment portugal where we were just a day or two to get a record high for the fifteen percent unemployment in greece is close to receive levels of unemployment that twenty five percent plus when you think pull these figures together slowly the devastating numbers of people now out of work he was suffering under these very strict all star team as it is estimated more than twenty

five million people unemployed across europe this is the first time now we're seeing this protest movement forcing food is in a cool united demonstration is full these countries get together to take part in europe in isolation wolf that to date is really going to be another wakeup call the european union leaders that we talk a lot about austerity of course a the last couple of days we've been talking to people in europe we've been own twitter easing the hostile austerity means on asking people how this is affected their lives in the stories just keep on coming in that really the media across europe now is that enough is enough is your opinion. it's continue to test these countries that are already on the brink even further watch very closely today what happens you're going to see these large scale movements will it be a game changer will the european leaders actually listen to this all of us throughout the day we're going to be keeping you updated of course watching very very closely as the details of fodor's this european mega strike continues going

all the way across the continent. there while the e.u. population is struggling to make its anti austerity message heard some are managing to flee the turmoil and find a safe haven outside the union but still on the continent this report to r.t. is worth a national. and oslo territory house anyone in need is welcome here in the queue for food traditionally immigrants from somalia but and this is new some europeans as well. who want to father of three came here from spain eleven months ago after he lost his job and gained debts instead to do in a given. i came here with hope i was forced to leave spain due to the economic crisis in bank recession here i work and make three thousand euros a month and i can pay my debts in spain. is not queuing for food she cooks originally from colombia she first immigrated to spain but the crisis pushed

her move further on she now works at a cafe in no wiese famous movie music and while she serves those who come here to admire the world famous scream she says her life if only they knew would probably provoke an even stronger impression on the visitors and it's hard. it's not as easy as they show it on t.v. you go from one country to another like a rolling stone you have kids and nothing to feed them with and no job. in september the unemployment rate within the eurozone hit a record high of eleven point six percent in the seventeen countries united by a common currency for more than eighteen million people are now out of work that's an increase of around five thousand every day since august during the years of gross year of was in desperate need of a cheap labor force and therefore provided immigrants from all over the globe with work but with the worst economic crisis since the second world war now in the gulf

in the continent not only is the able to provide jobs for outsiders it cannot of and create works for locals turning the tables and sending many of those in a search for a better life abroad to know we for example and on eurozone and only used state two factors some analysts say that have averted this can even country from disaster. in our region krone is one of the safest currencies in europe many people here in germany and in other european countries believe that our monetary system is being pressed up against the wall and this makes us weak. when the economic crisis fully engulfed greece last year brussels was on alert then a bailout treaty brought hope and relief apparently for mature spain then portugal joined the club and someone will still be others to come let's face it i know switzerland and norway are not a u. members they're doing better than any other european country denmark and the czech

republic the e.u. but non euro countries and we never hear things about the whole system when it steals all the major powers from states political economic diplomatic and military and give it to brussels and washington is doomed with german chancellor angela merkel saying at least five more years will be needed to recover it's clear. countries like no we will not have a deficit in labor force at least some more decades greif notion r t from you know we germany and france. what you can do stay with us here at r.t. for our coverage and continued coverage of the e.u. mega strike as workers unite against austerity. this is all decorated army generals falling from grace in connection with the scandals is becoming an alarming trend in washington the career of the current

commander in afghanistan is now in jeopardy after he became entangled in the case that led to the resignation of cia chief david petraeus. to quit after revelations of an affair with his biographer they emotion as a result of a probe launched off the complaints by a florida socialite who received many e-mails she said amounted to harassment and i would general allen who succeeded in afghanistan is also under investigation over inappropriate communications with the very woman who started it all we can all go live to kabul and talk to the capital who is in the afghan capital now lisa good to see you what's been the response to the scandal as we know so far in afghanistan. well it certainly is in the headlines as you can see in the papers here in afghanistan for tranced star on battlefield felled at cia by an affair the situation the reaction on the ground has been one of outrage people are really quite confused by this whole scandal one of the comments that i heard from

a person who wish to be anonymous in the foreign ministry is office was they founded really indicative of how well the afghan war effort is going in terms of u.s. policy if the top general in charge of it had time to send twenty to thirty thousand pages worth of inappropriate e-mails people here have also expressed some confusion as to why these kinds of scandals would force these top men to resign and not for example the scandals that have really resonated among the people here on the ground for example the tragic massacre by a u.s. soldier of sixteen civilians here in afghanistan the burnings of the koran by officials here as well as regular policy as like for example night raids which are so controversial here that often result in the deaths of civilians so people are quite confused by this scandal they're not quite sure what implications all have on the u.s. war effort here in afghanistan and of course it's coming on the heels. very important talks between the u.s. and afghanistan the two countries have been in negotiations over what the u.s. will do with the remainder of its sixty eight thousand troops that are here that

are due to withdraw by the twenty fourteen deadline some analysts i've spoken to on the ground here in kabul think that this embarrassing scandal will really be sort of a bargaining chip for some factions in afghanistan to be able to effectively get more of what they want to say well look you know you guys here in the u.s. military top brass don't necessarily have the credibility to pull off certain policy options and that's really been the concern as one of the fallouts of the scandal but of course if we look at the big picture in terms of u.s. policy in afghanistan it really has been crisis after crisis it's not just these resignations of petraeus and the implication of general allen we've seen in the u.s. spend nearly six hundred billion dollars and it's eleven year effort in afghanistan the insurgency the taliban insurgency has largely remained on the ballot by that we've also see in the u.s. actively shifting towards other policies for example trying to train afghan soldiers to to take over after twenty fourteen and that too has been marred by scandal with nearly fifty four americans being killed in the so-called green on

blue attacks showing that the u.s. influence is really waning here in this country another concern is of course the implication on the morale of the troops here the american troops who are not necessarily welcomed in this country they're not the scandal is not going to help them continue to operate on the ground and there's also the concern that the u.s. is really shifting from person based policy to a robotic policy what i'm of course referring to is the drone strikes and has seen three hundred and thirty three drone strikes in the past year alone that's more than pakistan somalia and yemen combined and so these are really the true issues that are going to be resonating on the ground with afghans not so much the scandal in itself all the scandal really does unfortunately undermine credibility by the u.s. commanders here this is from what what i've heard from people on the ground i want to mention also. further out of wanting a troop morale where you are as well the article is a copy of that we have back up our thank you. thank well but i swear i'm charlie

from the school of international affairs in india he says the so-called commandos curse is a reflection of why the us failure in afghanistan you have to look at it in the perspective of long wars and the stress of come on or not feed your enough cover up these definitely has implications for the war that's going on there as well as the incident in libya when the us ambassador was killed recently all of these are connected and the timing there's also institutional rivalry quite a few angles to this the administration the stool turned over as obama city as we treat our own reelection did that you know we're going to end a decade or norm of war are we going to end unless you know some generals are smeared i don't know i mean this we need to explore how the public relations disaster that's happening right now in unraveling ease related to the larger political issue of all the resources of these wars and the recriminations that are bound to occur at the end of every major war like this we did not yield anything in

the form of victory or a concrete outcome for the united states so good to have you with us here on r.t. today are still ahead for you in this hour minus ten change at the top but we look at the challenges facing the fast growing economy and whether the country's new leaders can tackle them this and other stories after a short break. was . i was. in the glow of rushes north from way from civilization in a three hour helicopter train from the nearest village. saying they stole one family have been living here for a long time in tents made of reindeer skins. look

. so. lodging runs in ada signal and then it's they also grew up in the two but left it at the age of six and never returned they now live in the city in apartment building but still remember their regions. cowhouse want to know is a dancing teacher. i am. still his tenses he tells us stories about his mother land. laws in europe to now has a one thousand strong rangy had when the enemy only saw the light can and most

around it is gather the tens and move to another pasha they travel hundreds of kilometers in winter when children fall of them. but the two families have less of a chance to come across each other they belong to different who are olds even though there's sometimes a similar. culture is the same much different each visit is shared power on the bar whether syrian opposition says it has reinvented itself and asked to be recognized as a legitimate representative of the syrian people at home and on the global stage. the mission of free accreditation

a free country or chargers free. arrangement free. free. care tied. free. video for your media project free media. dot com. sometimes you see a story. you think you understand it and then. you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything. is a big picture. program here on our. moscow france has become the first western country to recognize the new syrian rebel coalition as the sole legitimate voice of the syrian people and

the u.s. and other european nations stop short of doing so saying a foreign based group should show that it's able to represent syrians inside the country of paris also said it would look towards the rebels more on this story. the french president francois hollande said that the syrian opposition coalition would act as a temporary government in the future and he said that it would be the tosca of the syrian opposition to now establish a transitional government earlier in the week six gulf states recognize the opposition coalition what we could tolerate foreign minister saying that this recognition now removed obstacles to the securing of weapons to the syrian opposition it is important to make a distinct parallel with what we've seeing back on the tenth of march two thousand and eleven we saw the same scenario unfolding when france was the first country to recognize the transitional national council which was essentially the opposition

fighters in libya and this is what we witnessing this parallel situation now in syria what happened in libya and following that french recognition back in libya this set the pavement for international recognition and ultimately lead to foreign forces intervening in that country the arab league which is arguably the most important body in the arab world has given a hesitant welcome to this opposition coalition it has however stopped short of recognizing it as the legitimate voice of the syrian people and then you have members of the arab league such as iraq and lebanon that have not fully given their support to opposition fighters in their attempt to topple the syrian president bashar assad they are a number of questions and concerns still outstanding not least among them the whole question of the supply of weapons the question of foreign intervention and also the question of who makes up this opposition coalition it has for days if not weeks now been fractured by internal bickering it is essentially a patchwork of organizations and people that have very different political and

religious backgrounds and affiliations so many people are asking well if in fact it is effective and how effective its connections and its ties are with the syrian opposition that is active inside syria that his policy reporting right there will france's full indorsement of the syrian opposition comes amid fears that there is a growing number of extremists fighting on the side of the rebels father most already from the free syrian army the military branch of the opposition who told us are at odds are you that the commanders are not always in control of the combatants . the free syrian army is not a regular army but the soldiers of the revolution some troops claim to be part of the effort see but at the same time do not follow orders killings take place but as we are in a revolution we cannot control such events certainly there are some extremists some guns and some people who want to take advantage of the. the new syrian rebel coalition was are formed following criticism and intense pressure from the u.s.

and some arab states dr ali mohamed the editor in chief of the syria tribune news website questions just how much it actually reflects the interests of the syrian people. it's very surprising that they are. not using a coalition that was on the request of hillary clinton as a result of the syrian people and this is this doesn't make sense to me and to syria and it doesn't make sense politically even the first thing they said no more for this more than just what we want and more things are not in favor of the syrian people as the syrian people are being killed with these weapons i have been told in terms of the cancellations of the worst and the shows they are supplying. money to go to one of the local proxies so we're spending money so it was in the money it was hosting durables and arming training and the all this was done on behalf it was to me there was some powers of the press and the e.u. are being selective in applying the law. not only that it breaks the embargo but also believe they would be arming some of the extremist groups in this legally and

sort of it is possible that some countries will try to through history that given scenario but seriously prevent believe you have the. home by this would happen in the middle east is beyond anybody's fault if they decide to go it's. just about our top story for you here on r t a a european strike against austerity measures which is uniting millions of workers across europe right now these are the latest pictures from rome where thousands of people are taking to the streets and they've also been protests in spain today resulting in a clash used in a number of arrests and we're expecting action all across europe where hundreds of flights have been sold trains and buses disrupted on a day of action against austerity. into somebody who's you go now starting with iraq where five car bomb blasts in a roadside explosion of killed at least fourteen across the country dozens more

wounded the explosions hit baghdad and three other cities on the eve of a festival marking the islamic new year in the capital the attack targeted an army generals convoy in an area often frequented by foreigners we are following developments in the iraqi capital we will keep you up to date. u.s. military prosecutors to the death penalty for sergeant robert bales who's accused of killing sixteen afghan civilians the incident took place in march when bales allegedly left his remote outpost at night and executed his victims nine of them children the case has become the deadliest war crime by a single american officer since the beginning of the war in afghanistan. the pictures of the full force of. the wards the west coast of japan. reports say they haven't caused any damage or injuries though a rarity in the region. suggested the strong winds are likely to stay bringing

further unstable weather. now chinese leader who jintao has stepped down as the head of the communist party ultimately clearing the way for success of a vice president xi jinping is expected to take over as the party leader on thursday and the next president. the transfer took place of the party congress which is drawing to a close in the country's capital and the big question is how the new leadership will affect beijing's relations with the top political economic rival the u.s. which continues its military expansion in china's backyard analyst john h. but says america's strategy is an indication of its weakening position on the world stage. board who is part of the. westward sees through wind power or of power through the preceding always. or through three somehow or other the

stabiliser mediator or agreements there are seeing your position but what is interesting is they have the east. east with the rise in the east you have a lot. of latin america and africa in asia. right and every time for tempers to flare here are to a short break but as peter lavelle crashed. in japan the average height for men is one hundred eighty two centimeters in ten centimeters shorter because of that some employers refused to hire me one of them even told me directly that i was too short to deal with the client's computers already spent three months in this hospital and plans to stay for another four to

add the coveted seven santa majors to his stature invented by the famed soviet orthopedic is good for you is that if in the nineteen fifties these frames were initially used to treat fractures in deformities by cutting bones and slowly pulling them apart and therefore stimulating tissue regeneration it was out of was able to receive arms and legs and people who thought they were crippled for life piecing together patients shattered bones and in many cases their shattered lives in the angle when professing result of design his first brain using bicycle parts sixty years later says invention is increasingly being used to help people what eager to fracture their legs to become a few centimeters taller than the ultimate goal is still the same six thing somebody is alive both literally and figuratively about a third of patients admitted to be always out of center nowadays seeking surgery focus medical reasons most of them a man and most are not what you would call vertically challenged professor novick

of who operated on many of them says it usually comes down to a man's pride some of the first patient he turned to us with a leg linked to me request to meet his fifteen centimeters to be still want to surgery because panos to than him we like to say that we need to break their legs in order to fix their head. there may be nothing wrong with them from the p.d. point of view but there is something psychological that prevents them from living the law as fully being happy and we fix it like lengthening surgeries are banned in many countries and even the will out there pretty expensive in russia the entire course costs eleven thousand dollars about one tenth of the similar package in the united states financial considerations were one of the reasons that brought this washington state native to western siberia his main motive for the surgery had to do with how he fared in the others in america advertised as one seventy five i was

one sixty seven or one sixty eight in so one eight centimeters would have brought me right to average if i just wanted to be average for women height isn't so important you know i think girl can be short and it's not a big deal like your guy is like expect to be taller just before the operation most this matter a russian girl who found he's a regional hype quite endearing yet he still want to have had the surgery adding seven more centimeters to the self-confidence she took to told me the whole time you're crazy you're normal you're perfect. so now or so they call you so what a compliment for somebody who's used to falling short of his own expectations.

following welcome across the uk i'm peter lavelle the syrian opposition says it has reinvented itself and asked to be recognized as the legitimate representative of the syrian people at home and on the global stage what difference will be so make will this new. change the course of the civil war after all it would appear i slogged has considerable stang power. cross-talk the syrian civil war i'm joined by rym took money in london she is a spokesperson for the group building the syrian state in istanbul we have right good men he is europe bureau chief for the mcclatchy newspapers and in colombia we cross to joseph he is an adjunct professor at the university of south carolina already folks cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want women find go to you first in london we have

a new opposition group they want to be recognized internationally and representing the syrian people what are their origins and will change anything on the ground i don't think it will change a lot on the ground there is a feeling of optimism among. evolutionary is that at least there is now one united body but personally i don't think it's going to change much and i don't think it's going to last for a long time as a strong group because it's a coalition and coalitions are always new weak they fall apart in front of challenges and the reality is that we are in front of a very very complex and tough conflict there is no solution to unite around you know what are they exactly uniting around there are no solutions there is no political solution there is no. armed solution so it's not quite clear what is on there ok and i can stay with you rym let me ask you a question does it bother you that it took the united states the.